


The Hook

by helsinkibaby



Series: Right Beside Me Around Every Turn [6]
Category: The Flying Doctors
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Het Relationship, F/M, Het, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-22
Updated: 2017-11-22
Packaged: 2019-02-05 14:17:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12796284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: Tom's always had a problem with jealousy. Chris is not amused.





	The Hook

**Author's Note:**

> An "Operating Solo" rewrite. 
> 
> For comment fic :  
> Theme : colour  
> Prompt : Any, any, Green eyed monster  
> https://comment-fic.livejournal.com/865057.html?thread=105748769#t105748769

The thing of it was, Tom was quite aware that a tendency towards jealousy was one of his baser qualities. It was something he tried not to give in to, something he tried to push down whenever it reared its ugly head but he knew he didn't always have much success. 

Sometimes, it actually worked out in his favour - like when a French rally driver taking an interest in Chris had made him pull his head out of his arse and actually admit that he had feelings for her that went far beyond the collegial. 

Sometimes it didn't, like when Chris's journalist ex-boyfriend arrived in town and made no secret of the fact that he wouldn't mind picking up where they'd left off. Not that he'd said as much to Chris, but he hadn't needed to - Tom had seen the look in the other man's eyes loud and clear, had put his arm around Chris's shoulders in a definitely proprietary way. Chris hadn't said anything at the time but she'd tackled him about it later, let him know that she wasn't best pleased. 

That, however, had been mild compared to this. 

*

"Would it help if I said sorry?" 

Tom asked the question with as much charm as he could muster but it didn't seem to have an effect on Chris, who remained ramrod stiff in his arms. All around them, happy couples swayed in time to the slow music, with even Geoff and Kate getting in on the act. Usually, Tom would be pointing that out to Chris, the two of them trying to decide exactly what was going on there. Today he had other things on his mind. 

"It might," Chris told him tartly, "if I actually believed you were sorry." 

For all her stance, for all her words, she was still in his arms, her body pressed close to his, which Tom chose to take as a good sign. "But I am, Chris... truly," he tried. 

That got greeted by a sigh of pure exasperation. "Sorry that you got jealous?" she asked. "Or sorry we're fighting about it?" 

"Both?" Her lips returned to their thin line and Tom looked across the room at Sam and Emma swaying in a corner, not for the first time that night cursing the pilot and his own jealous nature. Because contrary to what Chris might think, Tom actually hadn't been jealous of any of the men she'd danced with at this fundraiser. Things had only taken a turn for the worse when Mike Lancaster had been dancing with her and Sam had nudged Tom's arm with a disgusted look on his face. 

"You'd want to watch that," he'd said, jutting his chin towards the dance floor. Off Tom's questioning look, he'd added, "Chris and Doctor Romeo Papa Yankee Charlie over there." His explanation had only left Tom more confused so he'd added, "Request Pleasure of Your Company... Creep was putting the moves on Emma over the radio." 

Which had more than explained Sam's antipathy to the man but Tom hadn't been concerned. "He didn't know Emma was married and he apologised. Besides, I trust Chris." 

Sam had actually snorted. "It's not Chris I'd be worried about." He'd looked pointedly in Chris's direction and Tom had followed his gaze, had seen Chris smiling up at Mike, seen Mike looking down at her with a look in his eyes that Tom had recognised very easily. 

He'd cut in without a second thought. 

That had been approximately half a dance ago and Chris had wasted no time in letting Tom know her opinion on his "Neanderthal caveman instincts," leaving Tom to remember Emma's reaction when Sam had tried to tell her who she could and couldn't dance with. He should, he reflected, have known better, and the hell of it was, he had. 

"Chris, I am sorry." He tried again now, tightened her hand in his, bringing them up over his heart. "I was jealous and an idiot and every other name you're thinking of... probably a few you're not..." 

Her lips twitched at that and she looked like she was fighting to keep that stern expression on her face. "Two years, Tom," she reminded him and he knew she was purposely forgetting those six months he'd spent in Africa. "You should know I'm not going to run off with the first man who smiles at me." 

"I do." He didn't blink. "I trust you, Chris... I just couldn't sit there and watch you dance with him... not when all I could think was that you should be dancing with me." 

He could feel the tension begin to leave her shoulders. Still, she told him, "You can't charm me like you charm the nurses." 

Actually, he'd been at his most sincere and earnest there, had meant every word. He told her as much too. "I mean it, Chris," he told her. "I trust you... and I love you. And I promise... I will do my best not to let my jealousy get the better of me." 

Her breath left her in a long sigh and she stepped even closer to him, let her head fall against his shoulder. He fought the urge to breathe a sigh of relief himself, contented himself with resting his chin on the top of her head as they swayed to the music. 

"Don't think you're off the hook," he heard her say into his tuxedo and he hid his smile in her hair. 

"Wouldn't dream of it." 

*

He didn't think much of Doctor Romeo Papa Yankee Charlie after that, not unless you counted him being a patient after the explosion at the gas fields. He didn't have time to think of him, to be honest - Geoff's knee injury meant they were a doctor down and while they'd managed comfortably with two doctors in the past, they'd become accustomed to - some might say spoiled by - being able to divide the work between three and there was a lot of scrambling to cover the roster. 

Yet, it still wasn't enough. 

Because while Geoff was holed up in a Broken Hill hotel room, waiting for surgery, Tom was out on a clinic run, miles away from everything and Chris was holding down the fort at the base and hospital. So of course that happened to be the time when Doctor Romeo Papa Yankee Charlie decided to come down with a case of peritonitis which required immediate surgery. Chris would have to be both surgeon and anesthetist, something that was never done and for good reason and when he spoke to her over the radio, told her she'd be fine, he could hear the fear in her voice, just like he could see it in his white knuckles. 

Sam couldn't fly the damn plane fast enough to get Tom home. 

Entering the hospital, Chris was the first person he looked for, breathing a sigh of relief as he saw her walking out of one of the store rooms. Her face when she saw him was one of pure relief and he didn't think twice, walked right up to her and grabbed her by the hand, pulling her right back into the store room she'd just exited. For once, he didn't care if people saw them and got the wrong idea, all he wanted to do was hold her and she didn't protest either, pressing her body against his and going very quietly but most decidedly to pieces in his arms. 

He held until she finally stopped shaking, until she was ready to pull back and wipe her eyes. Even then, she didn't pull back that far and he didn't let her go, kept one hand low on her back, the other on her shoulder. "You were amazing," he told her and she chuckled and sniffed all at the one time. 

"I didn't feel amazing," she told him. "I felt terrified. I never want to do that again." 

He couldn't blame her for that. "Come on," he said. "Let's get you home." 

Somehow he wasn't surprised when she shook her head. "I need to finish my notes, then check up on Mike." 

Knowing that arguing with her was going to be a non-starter, Tom adopted a different approach. "You do your notes. I'll check the patient." 

He felt some of the tension leave her shoulders, even as she lifted an eyebrow. "Inspecting my work?" 

"Never." He knew better. Kneading her shoulder, he tilted his head, gave her his best winning smile, the one that usually worked on nurses, small children and Outback housewives. "But if I check on Mike, we can get out of here sooner and I can get you home... you can relax in the bath while I cook you dinner..." 

Chris's eyes fluttered shut and her smile was nothing short of blissful. "That sounds lovely." A lean into him, a quick drop of her head to his chest and then she was standing straight again, which gave him the chance to brush a kiss across her lips before they both left the store room. 

Thankfully, no-one saw them coming out of there and they went their separate ways, her to the nurses' station, him to Mike Lancaster's room. The other man was asleep when he first got there but he stirred as Tom was reading his chart. 

"Am I going to make it, Doc?" His voice was a little slurred, a little groggy, but his eyes were alert enough. 

"You'll make a full recovery," Tom assured him. "Doctor Randall did an excellent job." 

"She's a hell of a woman." Tom heard the admiration in the other man's voice, admiration and a hint of something else too. One quick glance in Mike's direction and he reassessed his opinion of what he saw in the man's eyes - alert, they were but there was a sharp shrewdness there too. "Is there a Mister Randall?" 

Tom waited for the spike of jealousy to hit him, but it never did. Instead, he eyed Mike coolly. "We've been together for two years now," he said simply, neatly sidestepping the issue of their relationship status. He knew what the other man was asking but as far as he was concerned, he and Chris were married in all but name, even if the town had had their issues with it - "living in sin" was still whispered behind their backs. 

"Ah." Mike nodded, made himself more comfortable against his pillows. "I was wondering, when you cut in on us at the fundraiser. I was hoping you were just playing big brother." 

The retort that that was Geoff's job was on the tip of his tongue but Tom kept it back. "No." 

"You're a lucky man." And there was something in his voice, some undercurrent of challenge that had Tom bristling despite himself. He opened his mouth, all ready to make a sharp retort, but before he could, he closed it again, shook his head. 

He had better things to do, better places to be. 

"I know," he said instead, replacing the chart at the end of the bed, nodding his goodbyes as he went to find Chris. 

Once he found her, he wasted no time in taking her home, keeping his promise to her. Her cheeks were flushed pink from the heat of the bath, and maybe something else, as they ate her favourite dinner and much much later, as they lay in bed with her head pillowed on his chest, she looked up at him with a sleepy smile. "Ok," she said. "Maybe you're off the hook." 

It took a second for it to hit and when it did, he shook his head. "That's not why I did this-" he began but she didn't let him finish. 

"I know." She kissed his chest then, right above his heart. "I love you," she said softly and he wondered if she could hear his heartbeat quicken. 

"I love you too," he said before kissing her again and showing her just how much.


End file.
